Chrome Surpasses Firefox To Become Second Most Popular Web Browser

By one measure, the browser landscape was reshaped last month: According to data released today by StatCounter, which measures browser usage, Google's Chrome has taken over the No. 2 spot, sending Mozilla's Firefox to third place.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is still king.

"We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally," Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter's CEO said in a statement. "Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also."

"In the US Internet Explorer continues to perform strongly and is maintaining market share at 50.66%, up slightly from 50.24% year on year. Firefox retains second place on 20.09%, down from 26.75%. Chrome is up to 17.3% from 10.89%. Safari is on 10.76% from 10.71%."

PC Magazine does take a stab at StatCounter's numbers saying that according to numbers from Net Applications, another company that measures usage, Firefox still had Chrome beat by three percentage points in November.

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